Wikipedia

1968 Oakland Athletics season

The 1968 Oakland Athletics season was the franchise's 68th season and its first in Oakland, California. The team finished sixth in the American League with a record of 82 wins and 80 losses, placing them 21 games behind the eventual World Series champion Detroit Tigers. The Athletics' paid attendance for the season was 837,466.

1968 Oakland Athletics
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkOakland-Alameda County Coliseum
CityOakland, California
Record82–80 (.506)
OwnersCharles O. Finley
ManagersBob Kennedy
TelevisionKBHK-TV
RadioKNBR
(Monte Moore, Al Helfer)
← 1967 Seasons 1969 →

The 1968 season represented a tremendous breakthrough for the Athletics organization. The campaign resulted in their first winning record since 1952, when they were still located in Philadelphia. Moreover, the Athletics' 82 wins marked a 20-win increase over the prior year's 62–99 mark. The team's young core of Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Joe Rudi, Bert Campaneris, Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Gene Tenace, and Rick Monday began to gel; all of these young players (with the exception of Monday, who would be traded in 1971 for pitcher Ken Holtzman) would power the Athletics' forthcoming 1970's dynasty.

Offseason

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Relocation to Oakland

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  • On October 18, 1967, American League owners at last gave Charles O. Finley permission to move the Athletics from Kansas City, Missouri to Oakland for the 1968 season. According to some reports, AL President Joe Cronin promised Finley that he could move the team after the 1967 season as an incentive to sign the new lease with Municipal Stadium in Kansas City. The move came in spite of approval by voters in Jackson County, Missouri of a bond issue for a brand new baseball stadium (the eventual Kauffman Stadium) to be completed in 1973. During their 13-year stay in Kansas City, the Athletics were arguably one of the worst teams in baseball history, finishing last or next-to-last place in 10 of those years. Their overall record was 829–1,224, for a winning percentage of .404.
  • October 22, 1967: Charlie Finley arrived at the Oakland Airport and was greeted by 400 fans.[1] Finley had signed a 20-year lease ($125,000 per year or 5% of gate revenues if attendance passed 1.45 million a season) to bring the A's to Oakland.[2]

Front office

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Finley had persuaded Joe DiMaggio to take a position as Executive Vice President and consultant. DiMaggio needed two more years of baseball service to qualify for the league's maximum pension allowance.[3] In addition, Finley signed Phil Seghi to run the A's farm system (of note, Seghi signed Pete Rose to his first major league contract).[4]

Notable transactions

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Round 1: George Hendrick
Round 2: Reggie Sanders
Secondary Phase:[7]
Round 2: Ray Peters (did not sign)

Regular season

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Opening day

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The first game in Oakland A's history took place on the road, on April 10, 1968, against the Baltimore Orioles at Memorial Stadium. The Orioles defeated the Athletics, 3–1, behind starting pitcher Tom Phoebus and the efforts of three relievers. Jim "Catfish" Hunter started for Oakland and took the loss, with Reggie Jackson hitting the first home run in Oakland's MLB history to account for the A's only run, the blow coming in the eighth inning.[8] Seven days later, the Athletics made their home debut, also against the Orioles, and were again defeated, this time by a 4–1 score with Dave McNally besting Lew Krausse Jr. before 50,164 at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum.[9]

Starting lineup, April 10, 1968

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19 Bert Campaneris     SS
  9 Reggie Jackson RF
  6 Sal Bando    3B
31 Ramón Webster 1B
12 John Donaldson 2B
17 Jim Pagliaroni    C
21 Jim Gosger    LF
  7 Rick Monday CF
27 Catfish Hunter P[8]

Hunter's perfect game

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Catfish Hunter's number 27 was retired by the Oakland Athletics in 1991[10].

On May 8 against the Minnesota Twins, Hunter pitched the first regular season perfect game in the American League since 1922,[11] but the paid attendance in Oakland was only 6,298 on a Wednesday night.[12] The game was scoreless until the bottom of the seventh when Hunter squeezed the first run in. In the eighth, he drove in two more with a bases-loaded single, and ended with three hits and three RBI.[13] Hunter was inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987 and was the first to have his number retired by the franchise, in 1991.[10][14]

Season standings

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American League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Detroit Tigers 103 59 .636 — 56‍–‍25 47‍–‍34
Baltimore Orioles 91 71 .562 12 47‍–‍33 44‍–‍38
Cleveland Indians 86 75 .534 16½ 43‍–‍37 43‍–‍38
Boston Red Sox 86 76 .531 17 46‍–‍35 40‍–‍41
New York Yankees 83 79 .512 20 39‍–‍42 44‍–‍37
Oakland Athletics 82 80 .506 21 44‍–‍38 38‍–‍42
Minnesota Twins 79 83 .488 24 41‍–‍40 38‍–‍43
California Angels 67 95 .414 36 32‍–‍49 35‍–‍46
Chicago White Sox 67 95 .414 36 36‍–‍45 31‍–‍50
Washington Senators 65 96 .404 37½ 34‍–‍47 31‍–‍49

Record vs. opponents

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1968 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET MIN NYY OAK WSH
Baltimore — 9–9 10–8 11–7 7–11 8–10 10–8 13–5 9–9 14–4
Boston 9–9 — 9–9 14–4 10–8 6–12 9–9 10–8 8–10 11–7
California 8–10 9–9 — 8–10 7–11 5–13 7–11 6–12 5–13 12–6
Chicago 7–11 4–14 10–8 — 5–13 5–13 10–8 6–12 10–8 10–8
Cleveland 11–7 8–10 11–7 13–5 — 6–12 14–4 10–8–1 6–12 7–10
Detroit 10–8 12–6 13–5 13–5 12–6 — 10–8 10–8–1 13–5–1 10–8
Minnesota 8–10 9–9 11–7 8–10 4–14 8–10 — 12–6 8–10 11–7
New York 5–13 8–10 12–6 12–6 8–10–1 8–10–1 6–12 — 10–8 14–4
Oakland 9–9 10–8 13–5 8–10 12–6 5–13–1 10–8 8–10 — 7–11
Washington 4–14 7–11 6–12 8–10 10–7 8–10 7–11 4–14 11–7 —


Notable transactions

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Round 1: Pete Broberg (did not sign)
Round 6: Rich Troedson (did not sign).[16]
Round 26: John Strohmayer

Roster

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1968 Oakland Athletics
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Dave Duncan 82 246 47 .191 7 28
1B Danny Cater 147 504 146 .290 6 62
2B John Donaldson 127 363 80 .220 2 27
SS Bert Campaneris 159 642 177 .276 4 38
3B Sal Bando 162 605 152 .251 9 67
LF Joe Rudi 68 181 32 .177 1 12
CF Rick Monday 148 482 132 .274 8 49
RF Reggie Jackson 154 553 138 .250 29 74

Other batters

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Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Mike Hershberger 99 246 67 .272 5 32
Dick Green 76 202 47 .233 6 18
Jim Pagliaroni 66 199 49 .246 6 20
Ray Webster 66 196 42 .214 3 23
Jim Gosger 88 150 27 .180 0 5
Ted Kubiak 48 120 30 .250 0 8
Joe Keough 34 98 21 .214 2 18
Floyd Robinson 53 81 20 .247 1 14
Phil Roof 34 64 12 .188 1 2
Rene Lachemann 19 60 9 .150 0 4
Allan Lewis 26 4 1 .250 0 0
Tony La Russa 5 3 1 .333 0 0

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Catfish Hunter 36 234.0 13 13 3.35 172
Blue Moon Odom 32 231.1 16 10 2.45 143
Jim Nash 34 228.2 13 13 2.28 169
Chuck Dobson 35 225.1 12 14 3.00 168
Lew Krausse Jr. 36 185.0 10 11 3.11 105

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Tony Pierce 17 32.2 1 2 3.86 16

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Jack Aker 54 4 4 11 4.10 44
Diego Seguí 52 6 5 6 2.39 72
Ed Sprague 47 3 4 4 3.28 34
Paul Lindblad 47 4 3 2 2.40 42
Warren Bogle 16 0 0 0 4.30 26
Ken Sanders 7 0 1 0 3.38 6
Rollie Fingers 1 0 0 0 27.00 0
George Lauzerique 1 0 0 0 0.00 0

Farm system

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See also: Minor League Baseball
  • Life Magazine had declared the A's to have the best minor league system in professional baseball.[17] Finley had spent $2.5 million on bonus contracts as a way of getting prospects to sign with his club.
Level Team League Manager
AAA Vancouver Mounties Pacific Coast League Mickey Vernon
AA Birmingham A's Southern League Gus Niarhos
A Peninsula Grays Carolina League Jimmy Williams
A Leesburg Athletics Florida State League Al Ronning
A Burlington Bees Midwest League Jim Hughes
Rookie GCL A's Gulf Coast League Billy Herman

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: GCL A's

References

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  1. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.118, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  2. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.120, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  3. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.119, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  4. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.121, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  5. ^ Andy Kosco page at Baseball Reference
  6. ^ 1968 Oakland Athletics Picks in the MLB January Amateur Draft
  7. ^ 1968 Oakland Athletics Picks in the MLB January Amateur Draft – Secondary Phase
  8. ^ a b Retrosheet box score: 1968-04-10
  9. ^ Retrosheet box score: 1968-04-17
  10. ^ a b "'Catfish' has number retired by Oakland". Union Democrat. Sonora, California. Associated Press. June 10, 1991. p. 2B.
  11. ^ Catfish Hunter perfect game box score by Baseball Almanac
  12. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.126, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  13. ^ "'Catfish' spins first perfect regular AL game in 46 years". Eugene Register-Guard. Associated Press. May 9, 1968. p. 1D.
  14. ^ "Catfish's number retired". Gadsden Times. Associated Press photo. June 10, 1991. p. B3.
  15. ^ 1968 Oakland Athletics Picks in the MLB June Amateur Draft
  16. ^ Rich Troedson page at Baseball Reference
  17. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.85, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
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